First, a bit of background on the City of Rosemead. As is proving to be true of everywhere I go in Southern California, the area which now makes up Rosemead was formerly inhabited by the Tongva for thousands of years before the Spanish came. I'm considering just saying in regards to my posts about Southern California, "Unless I say otherwise, this area was inhabited by the Tongva for thousands of years before the Spanish came." Anyway, the Spanish did come and built a mission there in what's now Whittier Narrows. Due to flooding, they relocated the mission to its current home over in San Gabriel in 1775.

BEGINNING OF AMERICAN ERA

After the land moved from Mexico to the U.S.A.'s hands, pioneers began moving to the area like John and Harriet Guess in 1852. Around that time, Leonard and Amanda Rose bought a tract of land where they bred horses and they named their ranch "Rosemeade."

INCORPORATION

In 1959 Rosemead became a city in name, although it was still pretty undeveloped compared to its neighbors. There were lots of vacant patches and even today there's not really a downtown or town center unless you count the Diamond Square Shopping Center on Garvey.

Bánh Mì, for those who don't know (If it weren't for Ngoc cung, I would've gone on for God knows how long ignorant of the joys of Bánh Mì and so much else) are the culinary silver lining in the cloud of French imperialism of Vietnam -- sandwiches made on wheat & rice flour baguettes with pickled carrots, daikon, gluten, roasted rice, meat (or mock meats), cilantro, chilis, pate, mayonnaise and other stuff. They're delicious and, best of all, nearly always about two dollars for a decent-sized one. There was a short lived Bánh Mì place in Silver Lake where they charged upwards of 6.50 a sandwich! In the world of sandwiches and Silver Lake, I suppose it was quite reasonable. In the competitive world of Bánh Mì it was suicidal and I felt guilty and lazy for eating there even once. For that price I could've gotten about seven sandwiches at Che Cali!

Today Rosemead is a mostly Asian (61%) city, largely comprised of immigrants from mainland China and Vietnam as well as a sizable Burmese population. 34% of the population is Latino (mostly Mexican) of any race.

ROSEMEAD EATS

Rosemead businesses naturall largely reflect the nature of the populace, and Rosemead is therefore home the headquarters of Panda Express and Huy Fong Foods, the makers of Huy Fong's Rooster Sauce -- an American version of ThaiSriracha, a condiment found in all the best households.

As with most of the San Gabriel Valley (especially the Far Eastside), Rosemead is a real hot spot of cuisine -- especially of cuisine from around East Asia. Cuisines represented by restaurants in Rosemead include American, Cajun, Cantonese, Chinese, Cuban, Dim Sum, Ecuadorian, French, Hawaiian, Hunan, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Salvadoran, Taiwanese, Thai, and the aforementioned Vietnamese.On the rare occasions on which I've eaten non-Viet food whilst in Rosemead, DiPilla's or Lublae Thai have been the usual go-to spots because both are quite good and as the saying goes, "man cannot survive on bánh mì alone."

NB:DO NOT watch the Prima J video unless you're a nine-year-old girl or into Bratz and Myscene and you think unwarranted self-worship and obnoxiousness are charming.

Three years ago there was a scare in Rosemead where someone was leaving exploding pens on the ground around Rosemead High School. Those in the habit of picking up discarded litter were surprised with a non-lethal "explosion" in several cases before the perp, a disgruntled 17-year-old who'd been expelled was taken down by the authorities, his reign of domestic terrorism brought to an end before anyone's eye was put out.